Lake P Tuesday journey action too

Stanley Fink
Jun 24
7 min read

TEAM JO-JO:

.Team Jo-Jo’s Fishing Log Entry – Call List Activation & Lake P Troll Adventure

With the post-curriculum buzz still in the air from last Saturday’s Team Jo-Jo’s Fishing Curriculum Session, the Team Jo-Jo Call List has officially launched! We're now reaching out to those eager fisherpersons who signed up to join a trip with us — and the first few names have already had their turn at bat:

🎣 First Call: Big T-Doc

Unfortunately, duty or life must’ve called louder — he couldn’t make it this time around. But we’ll circle back to Big T-Doc soon enough. His catching mojo is too good to leave idle for long.
🎣 Second Call: Big Charlie

He answered the call — and today he suited up as first mate aboard the Bay Flat Jr, powered by the ever-unpredictable Yamaha Nightmare Machine. Together, we set our course for the iconic Lake P Trestles.

🎣 Mission Objective: Silverwonders via the “Lake P Troll”

The Lake P Troll technique/presentation was the game plan — a method passed down through countless Team Jo-Jo trips and perfected through trial, error, and plenty of storytelling at Fatty’s.

Conditions:
- Trestles had decent visibility.
- Water clarity: ✅
- Loons: ❌ (Still MIA — possibly on vacation like Big Rudy)
- Wind: Cooperative
- Boat traffic: Moderate
- Current: Slight east pull
Execution:
- We trolled plastics tight to the bottom, weaving in and out of the pylons.
- Made multiple passes north and south, adjusting speed and angle with each lap.
- Charlie kept the rod tip down and focus up — textbook trolling discipline.
Catch Report:
- A few taps, one solid hookup (NMR Silverwonder), and a couple of short strikes.
- It wasn’t fast and furious, but it was a learning day well spent.

💬 Final Thoughts

Today was all about continuing the mission: sharing the water, teaching the technique, and connecting with new mates who signed on with Team Jo-Jo. Big Charlie brought the right attitude and left the ramp smiling — mission accomplished.

Next up on the call list? 🤫 Stay tuned... the Bay Flat Jr still has some room, and the fish aren't going to catch themselves.

SIGNS:

· Me no fish at Monday night card game up .40 of “C” note Perfect.

· Got home late hit the bed at 1:45

· Up at 4 AM for our 5 AM meet up at Pointe.

· On the way out of the Grand Champions they had a bunny rabbit in the middle of the road coming in, he was just lying there cause someone ran over his butt, this must be a bad sign for sure. I was going to hop out and cut off his feet for luck.

· As we traveled down Rats Nest Road, had another bunny cross me path right to left, this is when I realized why I could never hit them, when we where hunting, they are fast, fast, fast,.

· Big Charlie was at the launch waiting for me.

· Weather conditions were bad, wind, rain, thunder, lighting all happing at the same time,. Check Radar it was not looking good. We waited for 2 plus hours for it to break. I finally asked Big Charlie if you got a rain suit yes say he, says me put it on we go out. We left with the rain coming down steadily.

· Out to trestles to start our late morning of trolling / fishing.

CONDITIONS:

· Perfect

· Wind, W. 2-3, N.E. 12-14, N.N.E. 18-20, N. 16-18.E.N.E. 17-20 mph.

· Water status / conditions: Slight chop to little ripples

· Sky, cloudy most of morning, sun came out around 9:30

· Temp, cool, mild, warm.

· Water level, down 8-10”

· Water Temp , 86.5 F

· Salinity, 2.6

· Specific Conductance 4840

· Pressure, 30.17 R

· Water clarity on a scale of 1-7, 4 minus

· Mississippi gauge: 11.83’

· Caernarvon Outfall: 715 ft3/s

· Tide, Rising

· Peak tide, 00:41 L .30’

· Peak tide, 13:41 H .85’

· Major Feed Time: 11:18 / 23:50

· Minor feed time: 16:17 / 19:30

· Tidal Coefficient: 84

· Fish Activity

· Very High Activity

· Boats go out and about, 16

· ONEOFTHEPACK’S REPERTOIRE OF TECHNIQUES / STRATEGIES

· Be safe.

· Have fun.

· This is me daily therapy for ALL me aliments.

· Put some run time on the Bay Flat Jr and the Yamaha Nightmare Machine

· Gather Intel for future trips, and to share with fisherperson, (on Facebook) to help assist them in their choice of areas to fish, lures to use and presentation of same to the elusive Silverwonders.

· Catch what catch can.

· Learn what learn can.

· Re-introduce Lake P Troll to Big Charlie

· Bring some fish for Big Charlie & family.

· Survive the weather conditions.

· Find a spot # with the seven fundamentals / criteria of catching:

1 WIND AT YOUR BACK: (A little bit of challenge, had to run boat on 45-degree angle along trestles to get the right angle to the fish.)

2 MOVING WATER: (Had plenty all coming in)

3 WATER CALRITY: (This criterion was our challenge for the day; it was off 3 plus vey sandy looking )

4 HOLDING FISH: (South of mile marker 174, west side of trestles.)

5 PATIENCES: (Had to wait 2 plus hours for weather to pass through before we could go out. We dropped our lines at 7:21, 7:22 had a strike popped my line, shortly after that Big Charlie, before you know it we had 6 in boat, then thins slowed down a lot, boats kind of dictated we need to go out pass mike maker 174, we hit them there too.)

6 SKILL: (Lake P Troll technique / presentation.

7 LUCKS: (Survived the bad weather, did not get hurt, and had a great day for fishing & catching.)

· Oneofthepack’s repertoire of Techniques / presentations:

· Anchor up cast & retrieve slowly along the bottom, with a twitch every now and then, tight lining…………………………………DID NOT TRY

· Drift with the wind cast & retrieve (DWWC&R)……………DID NOT TRY

· Oak River Troll (ORT)……………….Did not try.

· Reverse Oak River Troll (RORT) ………..DID NOT TRY

· Oak River Skim (ORS) ……………DID NOT TRY

· Cork ……..DID NOT TRY

· Lake P Troll (LPT)…………….All fish caught this technique / presentation.

· Drop shot: Did not try.

· Dead bait……None

· Live bait………………None

· Oneofthepack ‘S repertOIRE of LURE DU JOUR:

· 3” H&H Purple Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head with gold hook……………Did not try

· 3” Chartreuse Glow Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook………….Did not try

· Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook……………Did not try.

· Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 3/8 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………DID NOT TRY

· Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 1/2 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………DID NOT TRY

· Salt Strong Power Prawn (added 10-25-24) matched up with: Did not use:

§ 1/16 oz:.

§ 1/8 ox:

§ ¼ oz. jig head :

§ 3/8 oz. jig head :

§ Tandem Rig:

· Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with 3/4 oz. round lead head w/ 2 trailers, ……All fish caught with this rig / lures.

· Tandem rig, ¼ oz. round H&H jig head with gold hook, matched up with Matrix Shad Lemon Drop …..Did not try.

AREAS / SPOTS / NUMBERS ON THE MAP FISHED:

Lake P trestles, south of mile marker 174 west side of trestles.

OUR REWARDS:

· Lived too fish another day.

· (23) Silverwonders, 3 Miniwonders

· (Missed (4) NMR knot came undone, must have rubbed off Big Don on me

· Missed (3) Reeling in

· (1) Hardhead

· Lost (3) Rigs bottom & tangled up.

· We had to wait 2 plus hours before we could go out, wind, rain, lighting had us dry for a while. We kept an eye on radar, then about 6:50 took a bathroom break, saw Capati Mike Blandly asked what he thought, should clear up around 7:30 – 8 says he. Rotund back to the FORD transporter to Big Charlie, asked him you have rain suite yessum say he. Put on telling me we are going out, it is raining hard, Big Charlie backed me down and we headed out in the rain. Once the Bay Flat Jr set the stage , (3) other boats came out about 20 minutes later, we already had (6) NMR’s in the boat.

· The rain felt good and kept me cool all morning and had rain suits all day.

· Being on the water with one of the best fisherpersons me know, Big Charlie,

· Lessons learned:

§ Start of a nasty day, does not mean it will last all day!

§ Had second thoughts heading out, it looked bad over in the northwest side of lake, lighting all over the place but it went the other way and or day was perfect.

§ The Yamaha Nightmare Machine refused to run, she shutdown half back to port, only cause we ran out of fuel in tank one, that very nice of her to do that.

§ You can use a spinning rig to do Lake P Troll; Big Charlie had his and did very well with it.

§ Bay Flat Jr bilge pump working did a good job keeping us dry inside of boat.

· Best fishing trip of my life, until the next one.

FISHERPERSON OF THE DAY:

Big Charlie is out of practice, plus he is using a spinning reel to troll, me think that is a no, no, he missed a few, caught a few, learned a lot today. His efforts fell a little short for honors today.

Oneofthepack was on, on, on, got to get it today,